In an era when teachers commonly report that up to half of the children in their classes come from multiple homes and have multiple caretakers, the special psychological challenges of stepparenting have never been in greater need of examination. As thoughtful clinicians have long known, stepparenting is among the most complicated of psychological projects: it may simultaneously be a multifaceted burden and a spur to personal autonomy, deepened sensitivity to others, and newfound competence as a nurturer. Among the thousands of divorced people who remarry each year, most - despite their best resolve to live in the present - persist in reassessing the price of separation, especially as they come to appreciate the fact that divorce is seldom a total break for their children.

Stepparenting is a comprehensive exploration of the process of reconstructing families. More specifically, it is a book about the perils and promise of stepparenting, a caretaking role that may be more challenging than biologically given child rearing. Contributors follow people as they try to reevaluate past misunderstandings and acclimate to new parenting contexts and obligations. Editors Cath and Shopper have taken pains to offer a balanced purview that includes both successful and maladaptive instances of stepparenting. Of special note are the clincal examples throughout the book that chart the extended periods of slow, creative learning experienced by parents and children, biological and step, as they test the waters of new family systems and try to elicit newly attuned responses from each other.

In an era when teachers commonly report that up to half of the children in their classes come from multiple homes and have multiple caretakers, the special psychological challenges of stepparenting have never been in greater need of examination. As thoughtful clinicians have long known, stepparenting is among the most complicated of psychological projects: it may simultaneously be a multifaceted burden and a spur to personal autonomy, deepened sensitivity to others, and newfound competence as a nurturer. Among the thousands of divorced people who remarry each year, most - despite their best resolve to live in the present - persist in reassessing the price of separation, especially as they come to appreciate the fact that divorce is seldom a total break for their children. Stepparenting is a comprehensive exploration of the process of reconstructing families. More specifically, it is a book about the perils and promise of stepparenting, a caretaking role that may be more challenging than biologically given child rearing. Contributors follow people as they try to reevaluate past misunderstandings and acclimate to new parenting contexts and obligations. Editors Cath and Shopper have taken pains to offer a balanced purview that includes both successful and maladaptive instances of stepparenting. Of special note are the clincal examples throughout the book that chart the extended periods of slow, creative learning experienced by parents and children, biological and step, as they test the waters of new family systems and try to elicit newly attuned responses from each other.

Ethical Practice in Child and Adolescent Analysis and Psychotherapy: Protecting Safety in a Therapeutic Environment by Anita G. Schmukler, Paula G. Atkeson, Helene Keable, and E. Kirsten Dahl provides a detailed study of ethical dilemmas of the child therapist and the child analyst, whose work with children and their parents presents unique and perplexing problems. The book examines both the unconscious motives for ethical lapses and addresses ways in which such behavior may be prevented. It addresses working with parents, while maintaining privacy for the child, pitfalls for the child therapist and analyst, and ways in which the process of supervision, a cornerstone of clinical training, may lead to departure from ethical principles. Ethical Practice in Child and Adolescent Analysis and Psychotherapy addresses the benefits and risks of presenting and writing about clinical cases, examining the field of working as consultant in custody cases and the role of ethical practice from a historical perspective. Pivotal is the role of the unconscious processes of transference and countertransference, processes that are acknowledged but often not fully comprehended. Contributions on ethics and forensic work by Moisy Shopper, MD, and contributions on ethical writing about psychodynamic work by Denia G. Barrett, MSW.